what should I do? I dropped a mercury thermometer. Will me and my family get sick?

Answer 1

Don't worry. There isn't enough mercury in a traditional thermometer to cause any harm to you or your family. I actually just read this same question in a Parents mag recently.

Answer 2

By law, you should call a Haz-mat team to come into your home and clean up your hazardous waste spill.

Reality: just clean it up with a paper towel and throw it away. Go on with life as normal.

As a child we played with mercury on occasion because no one knew it was hazardous. In retrospect, we shouldn't have because mercury is a toxic metal but we haven't had any adverse effects so far. It would take quite a lot of mercury contact to cause you any problems. Except for the occasional spill, we come in contact with mercury through the fish we eat. The longer a fish lives, especially saltwater, the more mercury it accumulates in its tissue. When we eat that fish, we start accumulating that mercury.

In short, I wouldn't worry about it to much unless you were sniffing the vapors from the mercury.

Answer 3

Lord have Mercy! See what "panic" medical knowledge does for us? Just clean it up and throw it away and don't worry about it. When I was a kid I had mercury/silver fillings in all of my teeth and we use to enhance the look of quarters with liquid mercury! I'm not dead nor do I have any wierd disease. Don't worry about this small amount. It can't be any worse than eating a McDonalds hamburger, honey! Godloveya.

Answer 4

Probably not. Unless you ingest a large quantity of it. There is typically as much mercury in a flu shot as there is in a thermometer so I wouldnt be too worried

Answer 5

Heck, my Mom had an entire JAR of mercury that we used to play with as kids. We turned out OK. I think.

Answer 6

Not enough to cause you to glow in the dark.

Answer 7

just dont vaccum soon or the fumes will become harmful. but if anyone swallowed it then it will just go right through them.